OpenAI is building a X competitor: why it makes sense to have a social information layer

Most people look at stories like this and think “just another social media for exploiting human attention” but we've moved past the stage where social networks are about capturing just user attentions.

AI companies are generally not looking to sell ads or ad spaces, they are looking to deliver products and solutions they can only discover that there's a need for by analyzing the data you put out.

This means that if OpenAI is building a social media app like X as anonymous sources cited by The Verge claims, it's not about merely gunning for pre-existing platforms users, it's about building a new data hub for itself to improve its product offerings.

Large language model developer OpenAI is reportedly working on a new social media network, putting the company on a collision course with Elon Musk’s X and Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms.

Citing anonymous sources, The Verge reported on April 15 that OpenAI is developing an “X-like social network” that combines ChatGPT’s image generation tools and a social feed, presumably to allow users to share their AI-generated pictures with a broader audience.

It’s unclear whether OpenAI will spin out a new social media platform or roll the features into ChatGPT, the sources said. — Cointelegraph report

OpenAI's ChatGPT is known to have over 100 million users and there's speculations that this number may have reached 1 billion, according to linked Forbes article.

This much users gives them a start up leverage to get ahead, something they may be facing some challenges right now given that where the extra and ever growing data are is closed-off.

For instance, ChatGPT cannot directly access X content, this limits it to what's available on open search engine index which is much less and that creates a limit to its effective in obtaining data for prompt problem solving.

Think about it, if I post a tweet now and that tweet contains data that's crucial to solving a particular problem, ChatGPT cannot access it because it's not available on the open web.

Moving forward, it's only expected that more social platforms and regular websites will become very protective of their data, this creates a problem that only “human agents” can solve.

This human agents are social media users. Users will generally publish content across numerous social media platforms to maximize reach, especially if they are brand accounts or influencers.

If something is relevant on X, there's a high chance you'll find some form of coverage of it on Facebook, most times by other accounts.

By having a social information layer for itself, OpenAI creates an incentive for its current users to bring data to it because most users right now mostly go to ChatGPT to get information, not the reverse.

Developments like this highlight why web3 is crucial. If the future leans heavily on data, and billion dollar corporations jump to privatize and monopolize data generated by every day internet users, we slide into a time of heavy dependency on centralized corporations.

Open data on blockchains will be crucial to securing a future where AI’s advancements does cost humans freedom and flexibility.